Newcastle Community Green Festival

How green are we?

This is an important question – and one we must continually ask ourselves. Here at the Green Festival, we constantly seek to devise ways to measure how green we are. We don’t just measure our carbon footprint; we believe that greenness includes being as open and accessible as possible to everyone in the community. So here are some things you might like to know:

We bring renewable energy sources on site. A number of our marquees take power solely from the sun via some huge solar panels.

Mains electricity is used to power the Green World Stage and the catering vans, but is paid for through a green energy tariff, provided by Ecotricity.

We have a strict environmental and ethical policy for our traders, stalls and info tents, and turn down many people who might otherwise bring in lots of money, but who just don’t meet our standards.

We try to notice the small things and act on them. For example, we used to use an incredible number of cable ties to hold all those signs, screens and fences together. These are single-use and will take thousands of years to decompose. We don’t use cable ties anymore.

Our city centre location is within close reach of public transport and is accessible by foot or bike.

We are 100% free to attend. No tickets, no barriers and no need to buy food and drink from us (picnics are very welcome). This means we are accessible to many people who might not usually attend a ‘festival’.

We commissioned an environmental audit to appraise our green credentials against EU Standards. This year, we are seeking to gain the Green Achiever ‘self assessed’ accreditation.